After the Fall
by SamanthaRose
Summary: After they fade away, where do Nobodies go? What would happen if another Nobody was able to find them there?
1. Chapter 1

He was clawing blindly, clawing for substance, clawing through the nothingness that surrounded him for something, anything that would save him.

Something, anything, someone, anyone... clawing and crying out, and for the first time in longer than he could remember, he felt the familiar, sickening sense of fear.

Fear was just a chemical in your brain, right? Fear, the kind that made your heart pound, when you had one... fear... all consuming, making your knees weak, your skin sweat, your face hot, your breath quick.

He tried to gasp but had no lungs. He tried to cry, but had no voice. He tried to touch, but had no hands, no skin or body to feel with. He was falling, but not falling. He was being swept down a current too fast to fight.

He tried to see, but had no eyes. Everything smelled foul, and the silence was absolutely deafening. Where was he going? Why was he going?

Why could he remember what had happened, why could he remember fading into darkness? Nothingness...

He drifted for ages, for what felt like a lifetime, and at last, the current came to a stop. He drifted a little further...

Then, without warning, a hand reached down and dragged him up, a materiel body, lungs heaving as he gasped in air, arms jerking and twitching as they came to know movement again, eyes wide and staring. The fear continued to tear through him, and he was dragged up and out of the foul river he had been swimming in. He collapsed on the ground, those trembling arms not wanting to hold up the rest of him, the rest that felt so sluggish, heavy and slow that he wasn't sure it was going to move. He put his face against the dirt beneath him and breathed...

Then he sobbed, sobbed until his voice failed him, sobbed while his lungs burned and his eyes streamed. He closed his hands on the dirt, folded one arm beneath his face, and he cried.

It felt so good...

The nothingness returned to him after a time, or perhaps it was just sleep, just exhaustion. One way or another, he lost time between closing his eyes to stop the tears and waking again, feeling stiff and sore. He was naked, could feel a cool breeze kissing his back. His skin felt sticky, stiff... whatever it was he had been swimming in was still clinging to him, but had dried there. His hair was filthy, his nose felt stuffed and his eyes had trouble opening, the substance clinging to his lashes.

He was alone.

Clawing again at the ground, he pushed himself up on trembling arms, managing to force himself into a sitting position. There, he looked down at his hands, pale and shaking. He looked at his naked chest, covered with dirt that clung to the dried slime. He looked at his legs, which responded now to his commands, still feeling heavier than they should.

He tried to speak, but it came out as a croak.

He was thirsty... desperately thirsty. Looking around, he saw he was in some sort of cave, sitting on a bank next to a poisonously green river. He put his back against the wall behind him, content to rest until he found the strength to stand, to move.

Something told him... he had all the time in the world.

He must have slept again, for when he next opened his eyes, he wasn't alone anymore. When he opened his eyes, there was a fire flickering in the damp darkness, and beside it crouched a figure clad in dark robes, poking at the fire with a long stick. Something hung over the fire, some sort of animal... the smell of it made his stomach churn and his mouth water, but he wasn't sure whether or not he should alert this stranger to the fact that he had woken up.

Then the stranger lifted some sort of bowl to his lips... water. The stranger had water!

That was enough to make him stir, the stranger looking towards him, face lighting up. He didn't smile... but he looked terribly relieved to see his guest awake.

"Water."

The voice was barely recognizable, and even though he had uttered it, it startled him most, the way it bounced off the bare walls of the cave. He heaved himself away from the wall, feeling the indentations where the rock had dug into his naked back, and crawled towards the fire. The stranger held out a hand to stop him, moving to bring the water to him.

"Here." He said in a soft voice, holding out the bowl. As the stranger watched, he snatched the bowl away and drank what was in it. There wasn't much... not nearly enough, but the stranger insisted that it was enough for now. He helped him to the fire, where it was warmer, and asked him to wait.

He said he would bring something to clean him up with, and without another word, the stranger left.

It... hurt to think about it, but... the stranger was very, very familiar. Wasn't he? Did he know the stranger?

Had he known him?

Huddling near the fire, knees pulled up to his bare, filthy chest, he trembled and waited for the stranger to return. The thought of being clean, of perhaps having a dark robe of his own to wear, to be warm, was comforting.

For the first time in longer than he could remember, things were starting to look up...


	2. Chapter 2

The stranger returned after a time, gesturing to him to follow, so he rose on still unsteady legs and did so. They walked out of the cave in silence, and for a moment, the sunlight was so brilliant, he was blinded and had to close his eyes. The light became less harsh, and when he was able to see again, the stranger led him down to a stream leading out of the cave.

The water was clean, not at all like the sickly green river inside. It didn't make much sense to him, but he was beyond arguing at this point. He just wanted to be clean. 

Without waiting for further instruction or warning, he waded into the stream and splashed water into his face, the stranger's hand on his shoulder startling him. The stranger offered him some sort of stone, porous and rough, which he took with a gentle smile. It helped scrub the filth off of himself, and though it took some time, he eventually waded back to the shore, clean. 

The stranger was waiting for him there with some semblance of clothing held in one outstretched hand, which he took without question and slipped over his naked body. It was rough, but it was warm, so how it felt didn't matter. 

"Thank you." He croaked, the stranger nodding and offering him a gentle smile in return. They turned to move back into the cave... any questions he had would have to wait, he was sure.

Back in the safe darkness of the cave, they ate the food the stranger had made, and now that he was clean and fed, he barely felt the need to ask questions. 

What could possibly be better than this? 

Sleep came shortly after, the stranger offering his lap as a makeshift pillow upon seeing him nodding off at the fire. It was soft, the stranger's body was warm, and he wasn't going to argue about the comfort it brought him, being this close to the stranger. 

The more time passed by, the more he was sure. Perhaps in the life that he remembered before this, he had known the stranger. Faces and names were fuzzy now, he couldn't quite remember, but there was a feeling. A... smell. He remembered not only the stranger's feeling, but his smell as well. It was comforting, as much as the touch of the stranger's hand on his head, on the back of his neck.

He remembered sleep coming for him this time, and this sleep was far better than the sleep that had come before it.

The sleep came with dreams, and the dreams with memories, ones that he struggled to keep so that he might remember when he was awake. The sleep came with a feeling of completion... 

He woke with a start in the darkness of the cave, lifting his head slightly and wiping his mouth on his sleeve, looking cautiously around the cave. A sound had woken him, a strange sound... the hair on the back of his neck began to stand up, but then he heard the sound again, from above him, a soft laugh escaping his mouth. 

The stranger was snoring... that's all. 

He put one hand on the stranger's leg and pushed himself into a sitting position, stifling a yawn. The cave was still empty... still just the two of them. The stranger snored again, and he laughed softly into his hand, pushing himself way, sliding across the floor. The waterskin was full, he poured some into the bowl and drank it. The fire had gone out sometime during the night, so it was a little cool in here, but the clothes helped.

He took the time to sit back and look at the stranger closely, without eyes clouded by other needs. He drew his gaze along the line of the stranger's jaw, the broad set of his shoulders, the lines of his chest exposed by the ill fitting robes he wore. He admired the stranger's large hands, one resting on his leg, the other on his stomach, and took in the shape of his legs, clearly visible beneath the fabric of the pants he wore. The stranger was larger than he was, much larger, not only in height, but in build.

And as he gazed at the stranger, feelings welled up within him stronger than any he had imagined. As he drew his gaze along the line of the stranger's jaw, he remembered placing breathless kisses upon it. As he took in the broad set of the stranger's shoulders, he remembered his hands grasping them tightly as his own face twisted with both pain and pleasure. As he let his sight linger on the lines of the stranger's chest, he remembered laying against it with sweat on his brow, his own chest heaving. Those hands, he remembered their touch clearly, not just on his head, the back of his neck, but over his entire body. Soft, warm, coaxing to life feelings he couldn't even begin to describe. 

He drew his knees up to his chest again, hugging them tightly, swallowing a few times. His cheeks felt hot.

Of course it would be that moment the stranger decided to wake up.

"Are you well?" The stranger asked, eyes widening, and he hastily nodded. "Your face is bright red… You don't have a fever, do you?"

"N-no! Nothing like that." He took in a breath and managed a short smile, hugging his knees to his chest a little more tightly. The stranger blinked at him, and they both remained silent for a moment that stretched on just a little longer than was comfortable.


End file.
